Method of making printing-plates.



J. H. TRYON & G. A. GROTZ. METHOD OF MAKING PRINTING PLATES.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 6, 1914.

1,100,854, Patented June 23, 1914.

Jfraw Board 7 Rubber 5\ I Over/cry /0 w 4 IIIIIIIIIIII III/IIIIII 1/1/1111 1/! "UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

rosnPHrL-rRYorL-preLEN B'IneE,' '1vEwJjEnsnY, "AND o'HAaLEs A. snorz, or ozone PARK, 'nnwwonx.

mnrnon or MAKIN-e rniurme rtarns.

, Specification of Lettersratent.

Patented June 23, 191i.

Applicationfiled March a, 19 14. 1 Serial N-o: 822,864.

a resident of Ozone Park, in-the county of,

Queens and State of New York, have jointly invented: a certainnew and useful Method of Making Printing-Plates, of which the. following is a specification, taken in con-.

nection with the accompanying drawing, which forms a part of the same.

This invention relates to the method or making printing plates and more particu-' larly to a method of making aiprinting plate from a relief surfacei Our invention further relates to'forming a printing plate directly from a photo engraved process plate, or ordinary half-tone. plate, without the aid of transfer. And,

further, to the method of making a single ,printing plate by accurately positioning a plurality ofgprinting surfaces'on the plate and making a record for duplication of the .printing plate.

ordinaryoff set printing press to print either black and white, or preferably, colored litho-g graphs.

Figure cal section; Fig. 2 is a plan view of one of our printing plates having a plurality of printing surfaces properly spaced with -re-; lation to each other,,-the spacing being re,

v rubber pad 5, but preferably we use an in- Prior to our invention, it has been the corded.

practice to build up a printing surface for the ordinary oiiset method in printing 'lithoraphs by using the ordinary paper trans- -ers. Such transfers, which are Well-known in the art and need not be elaborated here, make printing surface which is at least two steps removed from the original half-; tone or other original relief printing plate. I

With the printing plate so many steps removed from the original, it has been found impossible to reproduce all the fine and artistic finish and personal characteristics of the artist which show for example, on the:

hoto-engraved process half tone plate.

oreover, thepresent method of requiring paper transfers, entails the expense of lithographic'artists to touch up and correct, as

far as they can, the transfers and also re quires the services of a lithographic transferrer. The old method requiring transfer 1s, therefore, not only removed two stepsfrom the original, with the consequent inferior artistic finish, but is also more expensive than our improved method.

may be type, a wood cut, a zinc etching, or a similarprinting surface, but is preferably and ordinarily, a half-tone plate made by the ordinary photo-engraved process which reproduces all the fine and artistic work of charactertistics, which are well understood and recognized'by those familiar with the work of any particular artist. This relief plate We put into a press of any suitable description, and obtain our printing plates directly from the original without paper transfers, so that-our method is direct and is not one which is twice removed from the original as is the old method requiring the use of a paper transfer. We have found in practice that perfect results are obtained by placing the half-tone relief plate 1 on a 1 bed, 2, inking'it, and placing directly over Our printing plates may be used in the.

and in contact with it a zinc, aluminum or other printing plate 3. Over the plate 3, we place a plate of harder material than that I plate so as to prevent the plate 3 becoming 1 is-a diagrammatic View in vertiembossed. .We, preferably, make this plate 4 of steel. Above the steel plate is placed a resilient member, such for example, as a rubber .pad 5. The plate 8 of the press may bear directly .upon the resilient member or terposed pad of paste board'7 or thin wood. The plates referred to, are then subjected to pressure. Preferably, they are placed in a hydraulic press having a platen 8 Where the pressure can be instantly regulated and observed through a suitable dial for the pressure will vary for different jobs. We have obtained perfect results with a pressure of. 2 to 12 tons, although in many instances the pressure may be below this in some class of work and far in excess of it in others, all depending upon the particular ob.

The printing plate '3 is preferablyslightly grained before subjecting it to the action of the hydraulic press, so as to give the printing plate 3 a tooth to hold the ink. This graining of the plate may be subsequently coarsened by chemical means wellknown in the art. While we preferably use the artist, aswellas his personal artistic We take a relief printing surface which 'a slightly grained plate, such for example, as the zinc or aluminum plate, we may in some cases use a smooth plate, and subsequently grain it, although the former we consider preferable. The printing plate 3 will be a positive and when suitably treated with water and ink in the well-known offset lithographic process will give perfect impressions of the original half-tone plate, or other relief surface from which it is ob tained directly.

\Vhile printing lates may be used separately, as above escribed, for black and white work, our method is particularly adapted for colored lithographic work.

As is well-known in the art of three color process work, three photo-engraved plates of each picture are made of the primary colors, yellow, red and blue. When particularly fine work is required an additional or black plate is made, making four plates in all. By'

our method we obtain a printing plate 3 from each one of the three primary half-tone plates, or four, if a black plate is made, a separate zinc, aluminum or other plate 3 being placed in direct contact, one at a time, with the three or four primary half-tone plates.-

Therefore, for the reproduction of each colored lithograph, we have at least three printing plates 3, or four such plates, if a! black plate is used, each plate, of course, being made directly from its own original relief plate 1 without the aid of a' trams'fer. These plates are then further grained by well-known chemical means if necessary, subjected to water and their own particular colored ink in the ordinary ofi'set lithographi printing process and form a complete and perfect reproduction in colors of the original by printing severally one above the ether, as is well-known in that branch of the ofiset printing art.

The printing plate 3, after an impression, is removed from the face of the relief plate or half-tone 1 to permit the half-tone to beagain inked, when the printing plate 3 is adjusted to present a new portion of its surface to the original relief plate 1 when pressure is again applied and a second printing surface 9 is made upon the plate 3. This is repeated as often as may be desired to obtain the necessary number of printin surfaces 9, 9 on the plate 3, each position%eing accurately .noted and recorded to permit a duplicate printing plateB to be made at any time, if desired, without a new layout sheet. One apparatus for carrying out our method is shown and described in our companion application filed of even date herewith, Serial No. 822,865 to which attention'is directed.

The printing surfaces 9, 9 may be from the same original relief printing plate or from different reliefprinting plates as desired, it not being essential that all the printing'surfaces 9, or any one printing plate 3 be duplicates though in practice such ordinarily would be the case. We may also use an overlay 10 preferably under or over the rubber sheet 5 and next to the steel plate 4 or over the rubber.' An ordinary underlay 11 may also be used in some cases under the relief printing plate 1. These overlays 10 and underlays 11 would seldom be used and, of course, may be omitted without in any manner affecting our improved method.

Having thus described this invention, in connection with an illustrative embodiment thereof, to the details of which we do not desire to be limited, what is claimed as new and what it is desired to secure by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims.

1. The method of forming a printing surface from a relief surface consisting in inking the relief surface, placing a sheet metal l surface directly in contact with the relief surface, backing the sheet metal surface with harder material than the sheet metal surface, and applying a yielding pressure to said harder materialwhereby the said surl faces are brought into uniform contact throughout and a uniform impression is imparted directly to the printing surface without a transfer and without embossing the printing surface.

2. The method of forminga printing surface from a relief surface consisting in inking the relief surface, placing a grained sheet metal surface directly in contact with the relief surface, backing the sheet metal surface with harder material than the sheet 'metalsurface, and applying a yielding pressure' tto said harder material whereby the said surfaces are brought into uniform contact throughout and a uniform impression is imparted directly to the printing surface Without a transfer and without embossing the printing surface, and subsequently further graining the printing surface to hold more water.

3. The method of forming a'printing surface on metal consisting in taking a metal plate having a relief surface, inking it, superimposing a sheet of metal directly in contact with the metal surface of the printing plate, and subjecting the metal printing plate and metal sheet to an abnormal pressure to obtain on the metal sheet a printing surface directly from the original without transfer andwithout embossing the printing surface.

4. The method of forming a printing surface on metal consisting in taking a metal platehaving an integral metal relief surface, inking it, superimposing a sheet of metal directly in contact with the metal surface of the printing plate, and subjecting the metal printing plate and metal sheet to an abnormal pressure to obtain on the metal sheet a printing surface directly from the original Without transfer and without embossing the printing surface.

5. The method of forming a printing surface on metal consisting in taking a metal plate having a relief surface, inking it, su- .perimposing a sheet of metal directly in contact with the metal Surface of the printing plate, and subjecting the entire metal printing plate at one time to pressure to obtain on the metal sheet a printing surface directly from the original Without transfer and Without embossing the metal plate.

6. The method of forming a printing surface on metal, consisting in taking a metal plate having a relief surface, inking it, superimposing a sheet of grained metal directly in contact with the metal surface of the printing plate, and subjecting the metal printing plate and the grained metal sheet to pressure to obtain on the grained metal sheet a printing surface directly from the original Without transfer and Without embossing the printing surface and subsequently further graining the grained metal sheet to hold more water.

7. The method of forming a printing surface on metal, consisting in taking a half tone plate having a relief surface, inking it, superimposing a sheet of metal directly in contact with the metal surface of the half tone plate and subjecting the half tone plate and metal sheet to pressure to obtain on the metal sheet a printing surface directly from the Original half tone plate without transfer and Without embossing the printing surface.

JOSEPH H. TRYON. CHAS. A. enorz.

Witnesses:

ALAN M. J oHNsoN, MARGARET WALSH. 

